Battery Cell Stack Spacer for Thickness Deviation Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
New generation battery cells stacked directly into battery housing without modules pose challenges in compensating thickness tolerances, leading to inefficient thermal management and potential performance degradation due to increased thickness deviations.
Innovation Solution
A battery cell stack spacer comprising carrier members and tolerance compensation sheets, which are adjustable in thickness to match the deviation, providing thermal insulation and mechanical support to balance cell swelling and contraction, while maintaining desired stack thickness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If battery cells are stacked directly into battery housing without modules, then assembly simplicity is improved, but thickness tolerance compensation capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A spacer is introduced as an intermediary component between the battery cells and the battery housing. This spacer includes a compression element that can be compressed in the thickness direction to compensate for thickness deviations of the battery cells, thereby maintaining the desired stack thickness while preserving the direct stacking assembly simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The compression element's compressibility parameter is utilized to compensate for thickness variations. By designing the compression element with specific compression characteristics, the system can adapt to different cell thickness deviations while maintaining overall stack dimensional accuracy.
2Adaptability or versatility
If spacer thickness is increased to compensate for cell swelling, then cell swelling compensation is improved, but thermal management efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The spacer is designed with non-uniform structure: the compression element has different compression resistance in different directions, with lower compression resistance in the thickness direction to accommodate cell swelling, while maintaining higher structural integrity in the radial direction for thermal management. This local differentiation allows simultaneous achievement of swelling compensation and thermal efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The spacer employs composite material structure combining the compression element with thermally conductive materials. This composite design enables the spacer to provide both mechanical compliance for cell swelling compensation and adequate thermal pathways to maintain heat dissipation efficiency.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The spacer effectively compensates for thickness deviations, enhances thermal management, and ensures consistent performance by adapting to cell swelling and contraction, thereby extending battery life and safety.
Implementation Method 1
one or more tolerance compensation sheets sandwiched between the first carrier member and the second carrier member
Implementation Method 2
Embodiments of the battery cell stack spacer may further comprise thermally insulating layers
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention refers to a battery cell stack spacer for compensating a thickness deviation of a stack of prismatic battery cells. The battery cell stack spacer comprises: a first carrier member for providing planar support to a base side of a prismatic battery cell; a second carrier member for providing planar support to a base side of a further prismatic battery cell; one or more tolerance compensation sheets sandwiched between the first carrier member and the second carrier member. The present invention also refers to a method of assembling a battery cell stack comprising a plurality of battery cells and a battery cell stack spacer according to the invention.